English

This upper division course applies concepts in symbolic methods and analysis to solve a variety of problems in combinatorics. Course content includes: 1. Combinatorial Structures and Ordinary Generating Functions: symbolic enumeration methods, integer compositions and partitions, words and regular languages, tree structures 2. Labelled Structures and Exponential Generating Functions: labelled classes, surjections, set partitions, words, alignments, permutations, labelled trees, mapping and graphs 3. Complex Analysis, Rational and Meromorphic Asymptotics: generating functions as analytic objects, analytic functions and meromorphic functions, singularities and exponential growth of coefficients 4. Singularity Analysis of Generating Functions: coefficient asymptotics, process of singularity analysis. The course requires students to take prerequisites.

Content creators serve as powerful cultural intermediaries. They have the power to shift representation away from traditional screen industries, bringing into sharp focus key questions of social justice in the digital age, including gender, sexuality, ethnicity and class, while evolving, reiterating and challenging textual traditions and conventions of film and television. In exploring the interplay of technologies, creativity, screen works and everyday life, this course applies prior learning in film and television to the emergent cultural form of content creation as social media entertainment, analyzing processes of both production and reception. 

This intermediate level course reviews the main theoretical considerations of cultural constructs, stressing the relevance of the role of otherness and the dimensions of intersectionality. The course starts from a critical and current analysis of identity in order to seek proposals for dialogue and peace policies aimed at building a cosmopolitan vision of the human being. 

This course does not require prior knowledge or experience. It is desirable however that those who are interested in taking it, show curiosity for intercultural dialogue, critical thinking and the development of capacities around collaborative learning.  

This course equips students with the basic concepts and problem solving skills for analyzing objects moving close to the speed of light and particles exhibiting quantum behavior. Students gain physical insights and analytical skills for studying relativistic problems and quantum systems. The course content includes: 1.Foundation (FND): a. Wave properties b. Speed of Light c. Superposition, Diffraction and Interference d. Atoms and subatomic particles 2. Special Relativity (SR) a. Frames of Reference and Galilean Transformation b. Postulates of Special Relativity and Lorentz Transformation c. Length Contraction and Time Dilation d. Minkowski’s Space-time diagrams e. Resolving Paradoxes f. Relativistic Momentum, Kinetic Energy and Energy 3. Basic Nuclear Physics (BNP) a. Radioactive particles ( b. Nuclear Fission and Fusion c. Radioactivity d. Mass-Energy Equivalence e. Medical application and Dosage 4.Quantum Physics (QP) a. Blackbody Radiation b. Quantization of Physical Quantities c. Photoelectric Effect d. Compton Scattering and wavelength e. Pair Production/Annihilation f. Double Slit Experiment g. Davidsson-Germer Experiment h. Wave-Particle Duality i. Hydrogen Atom (Bohr’s Model & Atomic Spectra) 5.Basic Quantum Mechanics (BQM) a. Eigenvalues, Eigenfunctions and Operators b. Two level systems c. Schrodinger’s Equation and Wave function d. Probability (Density) e. Infinite and Finite Potential Well (Particle in a Box) f. Quantum Harmonic Oscillator g. Potential Barrier/Step h. Expectation Value and Uncertainty i. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle j. Commuting Operators k. Hydrogen Atom l. Quantum Numbers, Degeneracy

This course explores current theoretical approaches and research in the area of language development and cognition in neurodiverse populations. These topics are included: Theoretical and methodological issues in the study of neurodiversity and language difficulties in childhood, including dyslexia, developmental language disorder, reading comprehension impairment; autism spectrum disorders; attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; assessment and intervention for developmental difficulties in speech and language acquisition.

This course covers theoretical and empirical basics of labor economics, following a globally standard textbook. It explores mechanisms and labor market impacts of various socioeconomic drivers including immigration, labor force participation, college enrollment, racial/gender discrimination, incentive pay system and labor unions. Grounded on theoretical frameworks, it also discusses controversial policy issues such as minimum wage, safety regulations, and various taxes/subsidies, while providing guidance on causal inference and its popular methods. Studying labor economics serves as a great gateway to micro fields (education, health, environment, development, urban economics, etc.)

Coure Prerequisites: Introductory microeconomics is necessary. Familiarity with causal inference or taking a course in econometrics is an advantage. Programming is not required.

This course covers fixed income securities, the mechanisms of domestic and international debt markets, fixed income instrument analyses, pricing, risk behavior, the security design, debt instruments with complex structures, investment strategies and risk management of debt portfolios. It addresses the institutions and trading, arbitrage in the bond markets, volatility of bonds, valuation, and different types of bonds including corporate bonds. The course also presents an understanding of risks in investing in bonds specifically and other fixed income bond-like securities. It also teaches the basics of usage and valuation of some common fixed income derivatives. The course presents new and innovative instruments and issues in the fixed income market.

In 17th and 18th century Europe, philosophers turned old ways of thinking upside down. “Man” went from being the center of the medieval cosmos to living nowhere special. Philosophers replaced the old Aristotelian world of nested spheres with an austere vision of the universe as an indifferent machine without a center. They stripped value and purpose from nature, along with color and other qualitative properties, reinterpreting many of these phenomena as mere human projections. Claims to knowledge and authority became fragile and suspect. Traditional religious beliefs came under increasing scrutiny as philosophers tried to reconcile belief in the existence of God with the manifest fact of evil in the world. Arguments for the education and equality of women picked up steam. Through these and other developments, a recognizably modern worldview was born. In this course, students will trace one or two philosophical problems—such as problems about the nature of the material world, the mind, skepticism, knowledge, God, human equality, and the problem of evil—through this period, with an eye towards the history of these problem and their lasting philosophical significance.

This course introduces the long pasts of the southern African region before the twentieth century. Instead of assuming that this history was inevitably leading to the emergence of a nation-state, this course examines the complex historical processes of making and unmaking of identities and territories. The topics include historiographical debates, the nature of precolonial societies and states, colonial conquest and violence, slavery and resistance, colonial governance, frontier narratives, missionary power, the mineral revolution and the South African War at the end of the nineteenth century. Rather than privileging the action of settlers, this course focuses on the ways in which African people remade and reformulated their polities and societies in the context of conflict and conquest. In drawing on historical materials from different interior regions of southern Africa, it also challenges the Cape-centric bias of the conventional historiography. DP requirements: 100% of required coursework and course evaluation. Assessment: Coursework counts for 50% of the final mark, and one examination at the end of the semester counts for 50%. Course entry requirements: At least two courses in historical, social science or cultural studies offered by the Faculty of Humanities, or by permission of the Head of Department.

This course introduces Performance Studies and Transnational Feminist concepts to examine how women and non-conforming bodies are marked in films and what they reveal about power structures and societal attitudes. It  unpacks how the body performs gender, sexuality, and race by considering the role film plays in producing both authentic lives and stereotypes. It addresses whose bodies are seen and how they are framed. It critically questions what it means to perform and interrogate who the real performers are in the framing of marginalized individuals on screen in the last half a century. By applying the body as a site of knowledge, students explore a broad range of narrative and documentary films from Asia and across the globe to develop a deeper and more layered lens around the power and politics of production. This course provides an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach that embraces multiple viewpoints while recognizing entangled spaces that complicate the narrative. There are robust in-class discussion to develop powerful communication skills while encouraging creative modes of engagement that expand beyond scholarly text. Prerequisite: GEND1001.